SAN DIEGO – Dylan Cease heard the call that San Diego needed more innings from a starter, providing strong pitching as the Padres pounded the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-1 on Tuesday night at Petco Park.
After nine straight games decided by one or two runs, Cease threw seven scoreless innings with just three hits allowed and season-highs of 11 strikeouts and five walks to pick up his second win of the season.
"Honestly I got too mechanical for a while and have just gone back to being aggressive (and) powerful," Cease said.
Manny Machado drove in a season-high five runs, moving him into third in franchise history with 575 and passing Phil Nevin (573), as the Padres (38-28) jumped all over the Dodgers (40-28) on a bullpen day. He finished 3 for 5, including an RBI groundout as part of the four-run sixth inning which blew the game open.
"I think overall we've just had good at bats as a team, as a whole group, so we need to continue to doing that," Machado said.
The top four San Diego batters combined for nine hits, eight runs and seven RBIs, as Xander Bogaerts also had a three-hit, two-RBI night. Los Angeles brought in position player Kiké Hernández to pitch the final 2 ⅓ innings.
Cease cruised through the first two innings before getting into trouble in the third, starting when No. 9 batter Dalton Rushing walked on four pitches with one out. After an Ohtani groundout, Betts and Freeman walked to load the bases, but the San Diego starter struck out Teoscar Hernández with a low and away slider to get out of the inning.
"The way he did it tonight was a great blueprint for it, dominating 0-1 and 1-1 counts, so the first two out of three pitches were almost all strikes, he does that it's earlier outs," said manager Mike Shildt. "It sets himself up for the strikeouts that he clearly has and wants...when it's 100 pitches for seven innings that's pretty much the recipe."
The Padres followed up the next half inning by getting the offense going with two outs as Fernando Tatis Jr. worked a walk by reliever Matt Sauer, who was expected to see the most significant time during a bullpen game for the Dodgers.
Luis Arraez then lined a first pitch cutter to right field for an RBI double, Machado followed by lining an RBI single to center and Jackson Merrill cracked a 2-0 cutter down the right field line for an RBI triple to complete the three-run third.
Denis Poroy - Imagn Images
San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado (13) hits a RBI single during the third inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park.
Machado added to his hot June by upping his production to a .415 batting average on 17 hits and 15 RBIs. Merrill has RBIs in back to back games for the first time since May 10 and 12, which were part of a four game stretch after returning from the IL where he drove in seven runs.
"We're cold at the same time, we're hot at the same time, that's just how teams are," Merrill said. "I'd rather be together than half the team be raking and half the team not be raking the whole year, so it's good to see all of us clicking together again."
It was the start of a stretch of five straight innings where the Brown and Gold plated runs, with the one run fourth and fifth innings having the potential for much more as the Padres loaded the bases with none out in each. Martín Maldonado grounded into a double play in the fourth that plated Bogaerts, then Machado singled home Arraez after a leadoff double in the fifth.
All the while Cease continued to keep the Dodger bats under wraps, allowing singles to Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the fifth inning. Teoscar Hernández, who had the only other hit against Cease to start the second, struck out to end the inning on LA’s second at bat with a runner in scoring position against the San Diego starter.
"I'm going to be happy tonight, it means a lot, but I really don't want to lose focus," Cease said. "There's a lot of starts left and I really want to build off of it and keep it going."
Maldonado started the sixth inning with an ambush, first-pitch home run off a middle-middle cutter for his third home run of the year. After the Machado RBI groundout, Bogaerts laced a two-RBI single to center field to push the lead out to 9-0.
Los Angeles began the game with Lou Trivino pitching the first inning as an opener, then turned to Matt Sauer to handle the middle innings. Sauer, who was recalled prior to the game, made his first MLB appearance since May 23 and threw 111 pitches over 4 ⅔ innings.
The Padres pasted Sauer for 13 hits and nine runs, with the LA follow pitcher striking out six and walking three before finally being lifted for Kiké Hernández. It was the third pitching appearance of the season for Hernández, who has played in 53 games for the Dodgers.
Machado hammered a Hernández pitch off the wall in left field to drive in the final two San Diego runs of the game, making it the 13th time in his career that Machado has had five or more RBIs in a game. It’s the sixth time he’s hit that mark with the Padres; he hit his career high of seven RBIs twice as a Baltimore Oriole.
David Morgan allowed the first LA run of the game in the eighth on an RBI single by Michael Conforto, but the Padres reliever left the bases loaded with a strikeout. Morgan also pitched the ninth inning.
The rubber match of the series will see Randy Vásquez (3-4, 3.69 ERA) start for San Diego against Justin Wrobleski (1-2, 7.20 ERA) for the Dodgers at 1:10 p.m. at Petco Park.